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CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEW
2.1An Overview of Hotel Introductions
Firstly, the definition of hotel introduction will be given before probing into itscommunicative purpose, and then previous studies on hotel introductions will bereviewed.
2.1.1 Definition and Its Communicative Purpose
From analysis, we find out that there is no exact and well-accepted definition of theterm—hotel introduction, yet the definition of the word—introduction can give a hint. Inaccordance with Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, introduction is “something thatintroduces as a part of a book or treatise preliminary to the main portion”. According toBhatia (1993:74), hotel introduction is “a representative promotional genre of text”. Andalso, in the view of Liu Fuchuan, hotel introduction is “a kind of advertisement and hotelintroduction is as a subgenre of promotional genre”（2011:16）.
Based on the definition of hotel introduction, it is known that as a kind of promotionalgenre, hotel introduction serves similar communicative purposes as other promotionalgenres such as company profiles, advertisement etc. On the ground of the studies of JiangChengyao(2010) and Liu Fuchuan(2011), three communicative purposes of hotelintroductions can be summarized. First of all, the most basic purpose of hotelintroductions is to offer information about the hotels they represent, including theirlocation, facilities, services, prices, history, surrounding environment and so forth.Besides, they try to establish hotels’ credibility through setting good images in the hope of arousing customers’interest. What’s more, hotel introductions, just like advertisements,are used to promote products and services of the hotels.
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2.2 Previous Studies on the Theory of Intertextuality
This part will involve a historical overview of the theory of intertextuality and the relatedintertextual studies done by scholars previously on both literary and non-literary field.Since there is no unanimous definition of intertextuality up to present, this sectionattempts to trace back the origin and development so as to present a systematic picture ofit.
2.2.1 Historical Overview of Intertextuality
Quite a few of scholars, such as Saussure, Bakhtin, Krestiva and Barthes, have madecontributions to the origin and development of the theory of intertextuality. There are alsoother scholars who have carried out studies on intertextual analysis of literary andnon-literary texts.
(1) Origins—Saussure, Bakhtin, Krestiva, Barthes
Speaking of the origin of intertextuality, Saussure has to be mentioned firstly. Though theterm intertextuality is not coined directly by Saussure, its emergence cannot be partedwith his contribution. As Allen Graham (2000:2) states, intertextuality is generated from20thcentury linguistics, particular from the work of Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure(2001:15) points out “language is a system of signs expressing signs”, and holds thatlanguage is made up of two parts: a signified (concept) and a signifier (sound image). In line with Saussure, linguistic sign is non-referential, or in other wo
